Thursday, March 09, 2006

Central Texas Reporting Increased Use of Methamphetamines by Young People: Some Report Getting It from Their Parents

I previously posted about the increasing incidence of children being removed from homes due to meth use. While the article described in the prior post is horrible, today's Highlander, a newspaper in Marble Falls, contains an article that is truly awful. The Highlander reports that there has been "an alarming increase in the number of local children seeking treatment" for methamphetamine addiction. Susan Hartline of Hartline Counseling told the Highlander

Meth
use is found on every single campus, including Marble Falls Elementary
School. I've treated kids as young as fourth and fifth
graders. . . . Many
parents are doing methamphetamine with their kids so that the kids will
not turn them in to authorities or so they will have a using buddy.

The article also states that methamphetamine use in the Burnet County area today affects one in three families.

Methamphetamine
abuse now affects one in three families in the Burnet County area,
Hartline said, citing a recent study by the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Association.

Just five years ago, only 27 out of
210 of Hartline's annual clients sought her help for methamphetamine
addiction, while in 2005, the number rose to 212 out of 221.

"Meth is extremely addictive, even more so than heroin." Hartline said. "It grabs hold and won't let go."

While
she treats clients of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, Hartline
said she is seeing an alarming increase in the number of local children
seeking treatment.

"Meth
use is found on every single campus, including Marble Falls Elementary
School," she said. "I've treated kids as young as fourth and fifth
graders."

A 2004 Texas Department of Public Safety crime report
supports this trend, showing Texas children as young as 10 years old
have been arrested for methamphetamine possession.

Hartline said some addicted children are getting their first taste of the drug from an unlikely source - their parents.

"Many
parents are doing methamphetamine with their kids so that the kids will
not turn them in to authorities or so they will have a using buddy,"
she said.

Hartline has had seven former clients admit to getting
their kids high and 26 former adolescent clients who stated their
parents were the first to get them high.

Also troubling is a
report released by the Texas Department of Health Services surveying
Texas students between the seventh and twelfth grades, which showed a
56 percent increase in illicit drug use by students who routinely earn
As and Bs.

Recovering methamphetamine addict Angela Gray said
she knows firsthand how young addicts are today. "I know of a
14-year-old from girl from this area," Gray said. "How do you think she
paid for it? By prostituting and dealing."

David Laine, project
coordinator for the 33rd Judicial District's Narcotics Enforcement Team
(NET), agrees with Hartline about the growing methamphetamine problem
and said the manufacturing of meth is the number one threat in the Hill
Country.

"We dismantled four clandestine meth labs just in
January," Laine said. "Per capita, we have one of the highest numbers
of operational, clandestine, meth lab seizures in Texas."

Laine said there is no typical meth user, but that children are often involved.

"It goes from a 62-year-old grandmother down to the 10-year-old who sits out front on lookout," he said.

One problem fueling drug use among children, Laine said, is easy access to money.

"Parents
are giving their kids $20 or $40 at the beginning of the week," he
said. "The parents have to hold them accountable for where that money
goes."

Laine said he thinks drug education is a major key in preventing illicit drug use.

"Before
a child graduates from high school, I think they should have to write
papers on tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine use
so they can learn about the consequences of all these substances,"
Laine said. "That would help them develop their own personal protocol
and take the demand for drugs away."

He also said NET maintains
a presence in all of the schools and combats use of methamphetamine
through public awareness education, patrols, and an informant base, and
by tracking psudoephedrine and ephedrine purchases.

Laine
stressed that integrated communication within federal, state, and local
law enforcement, as well as public awareness and education, will be
keys to fighting the methamphetamine epidemic, especially among
children.

Ryder Warren, superintendent of Marble Falls
Independent School District, said the district has a unit on drug use
in their character education program, and that the best thing the
schools can do is test randomly for drug use among students involved in
extracurricular activities.

"Because so many of our students are involved in activities, this means we test about 70 percent of our students," he said.

Warren
also said that while he has not heard of specific cases of elementary
school aged children in the area being addicted to methamphetamine, he
is not surprised.

"Drug use is definitely creeping further and
further down into these ages," he said. "We are going to be as
proactive as possible, and we are looking at new ways to bring
information to the children so that they are able to make the best
possible decisions when faced with these issues."

Additional
information on methamphetamine use and addiction may be found at
www.narconon.org or by calling the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Administration at (800) 729-6686.